High School Division
Click on the title to read a winning essay.
First Prize
Caitlin Davidson, Carroll Senior High School, Southlake, TX
“The American Colonization Society and Underlying Abolitionist Racism”
Second Prize
Baird Johnson, Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY
“The Confederacy: Doomed by Its Foundation”
Third Prize
Joshua Orszag, Georgetown Day School, Washington, DC
“Whales and War: How the Confederates Destroyed the Northern Whaling Industry and Why the Union Let It Happen”
Honorable Mention (in alphabetical order)
Nithyani Anandakugan, Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, Acton, MA
“Through the Lens of Dred Scott: The Supreme Court’s Antebellum Condition”
Kaitlyn Anderson, Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus, Honolulu, HI
“From the Grapevine: The Telegraph in the Civil War”
Cate Cogger, Chapel Hill High School, Chapel Hill, NC
“Then and Now: The Influence of the Civil War in Art”
James Nguyen, Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP Online
“Tomahawks and Rifles: The Warriors of the Civil War”
Rachel Torres, Patchogue-Medford High School, Medford, NY
“Weathering the War: The Overlooked Impact of Meteorology on the American Civil War”
Nina Smith, West Catholic High School, Grand Rapids, MI
“Mathew Brady and Civil War Photography”
Luke Vacha, St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, Philadelphia, PA
“‘Thaddeus Stevens frankly and defiantly has declared’: Conviction, Equality, and Suffrage”
Middle School Division
Click on the title to read a winning essay.
First Prize
Eliane Spalding, Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, Dallas, TX
“Lincoln and Davis: Motivational Leaders”
Second Prize
Cecilia DeGuzman, Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill, Durham, NC
“Tears of Ink: The Civil War in Verse”
Third Prize
Ava Cox, State College of Florida Collegiate School, Bradenton, FL
“Civil War: It Wasn’t Just a Man’s Fight!”
Documentary Film Category
First Prize
Rebekah Che, Pennsylvania Homeschoolers AP Online
“A State Divided: How Local Ohio Newspapers Reflected Political Conflict”
Second Prize
Gabrielle Benkovitz, Notre Dame School, New York, NY
“Women’s Clothing during the Civil War”
Third Prize
Kacie McKeever, Sanford H. Calhoun High School, Merrick, NY
“After the Bullet: How Doctors Treated Gunshot Wounds in the Civil War Era”